Cleo - my first snake

Hey guys,

I thought I would throw a few pics of my beautiful new companion - Cleopatra. She was labelled as a パルテルバター in Japanese which I guess translates to a Butter Pastel morph.

I have been researching BPs for a while now and took the plunge at the Kyushu Reptile Festival earlier today.

She spent a good hour after we got home exploring her new home and then has settled down in one of her hides since then. Since it has been around the high 20's today (centigrade) she seems to have chosen the cool end of the enclosure.

Anyway, here are some pics:

1: Just in the cage getting used to the space.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../7/9/cleo1.jpg

2: Climbing around to see if there is any way out.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../7/9/cleo3.jpg

3: "What's this hide thing for? I like it up here!"
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../7/9/cleo2.jpg

Very nice. Welcome to the club. :gj:

Aww, she's a cute little noodle, she looks like she will be happy in her new home. Congrats on your first ball python, if you haven't already, you will fall in love with her as ball pythons are just the most amazing pets. Also, welcome to the forums and the hobby. :) :snake:

Thank you both.

I am just going to let her chill for a few days to get settled in. The guy I got her from said she ate 4 days ago so will probably try and give her a mouse in a couple of days. Think that is too early? Should I give her a full week of settling in time? That would make it almost two weeks since her last meal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maron

Thank you both.

I am just going to let her chill for a few days to get settled in. The guy I got her from said she ate 4 days ago so will probably try and give her a mouse in a couple of days. Think that is too early? Should I give her a full week of settling in time? That would make it almost two weeks since her last meal.

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Hi, Maron!

She's a beautiful noodle! Typically, what most of us do with a new addition to the family is allow him/her to eat at least 3 consecutive meals with you, in her new home, before handling her at all. I know the wait can royally suck but you just need to make sure she feels safe & secure and all is well before handling.

I have a beautiful lil' Blade Clown that hasn't eaten since I got her almost 2 months ago. Gonna try a live mouse in a couple days and see if that'll entice a reaction. We shall see.

Good luck on her 1st meals and keep us posted! She's a cutie.

EDIT: Just my humble opinion....I don't think that's too early to start trying to feed. Some of the local experts will probably jump in here and give some more sound advice as I'm just barely a novice. Got my 1st BP last October and already have a 2nd addition. Be warned, it's a sickness and it only gets worse from here. ��

Thanks for the advice Shayne.

I will head to a pet shop tomorrow and pick up a few hoppers (that is what I was told she was eating). I think she could handle a bigger mouse but I would like to get a couple of feeds under my (our) belt and then take it from there. I will maybe try to give her a mouse on Monday night.

I love the responsiveness and friendliness of this forum already!

Woot.

I had my first poop in the enclosure this morning!

I mean, I didn't, Cleo did.

She must have been out and about exploring last night while I was in bed. So far during the day she is just hiding in her cool hide.

I am going to head to the pet shop this afternoon to pick up some mice.

She is 130g and was told she takes hoppers. Does this sound about right? Or should I bump her up to a small mouse. Rats are really hard to find here in Japan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maron

Woot.

I had my first poop in the enclosure this morning!

I mean, I didn't, Cleo did.

She must have been out and about exploring last night while I was in bed. So far during the day she is just hiding in her cool hide.

I am going to head to the pet shop this afternoon to pick up some mice.

She is 130g and was told she takes hoppers. Does this sound about right? Or should I bump her up to a small mouse. Rats are really hard to find here in Japan.

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There are two common ways to base the meal size. You can find the thickest part of the snake, and feed a prey that is the same diameter, or you can go off weight. The meal should weigh in at 10-15% of the snakes weight, so at 130g, you want a mouse that is roughly 13-18g, I believe a good sized hopper should fall right in there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maron

Thanks for the advice Shayne.

I will head to a pet shop tomorrow and pick up a few hoppers (that is what I was told she was eating). I think she could handle a bigger mouse but I would like to get a couple of feeds under my (our) belt and then take it from there. I will maybe try to give her a mouse on Monday night.

I love the responsiveness and friendliness of this forum already!

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You're very welcome!

Like Fadingdaylight said, 10-15% of the body weight or roughly the size of her largest diameter will be just fine. My boy weighs roughly 500g right now so I'm just giving him 2 to finish up a bag of fuzzies I had left over.

Also, not sure if you have one already but a cheap ($20) laser temp. gun is a necessity. It's good to keep surface temps in check. I had an issue with keeping my warm hide around 90 without getting the surface too hot. It was good for me to know exactly how hot the bottom was so I could dial the temps. in with more accuracy. Those lil' probes can be a bit off sometimes, depending on substrate type and/or depth, also where the temp. probe is positioned. Not really sure why I brought that up but I hope it makes sense. lol

I have a temp gun. Currently the cool side is hitting around 79F and the warm side is around 90F on the glass with it a little cooler on top of the substrate. Humidity is at around 60 as it is quite humid here at the moment.

I don't want to pull her out to see her body diameter as everything I have read says to let her be for a while until she is feeding well and settled in, so I will base it off her body weight and try her out on a mouse that is around 15g or so. The mouse sizes seem to be different here to the ones I have researched. They go from hopper to medium adult. I guess I will start her on the hoppers just to get some success with feeding for the next 2-3 feeds then move onto a bigger mouse.

Thanks again guys. I feel almost as neurotic about trying to do everything right as when my wife and I had our first human kid :D. The difference is she wants nothing to do with Cleo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maron

...I feel almost as neurotic about trying to do everything right as when my wife and I had our first human kid :D. The difference is she wants nothing to do with Cleo.

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You've obviously "done your homework" so I hope Cleo gives you no anxiety...& also that in time your wife will come to appreciate her too. BP's are pretty sweet pets,
but so many people were raised to fear all snakes...well, give her time. I'm an "animal lover" but never expected to get into snakes & didn't until I was an adult, after
realizing that most of what people repeat about snakes is false information.
:welcome:

Sounds like you're doing great with the husbandry. BPs love the night. With mine he does not come out during the day. Every now and then he will stick his head out to see what's going on, but when the lights go out.....He is out and about cruising and exploring

Seems it was too early for a meal.

She looked at the mouse for a few seconds then turned away like “Dude! I’ve barely unpacked my stuff and you are dangling mice in my face! Get outta here.”

I will try again in a few days.

Does the time of day have any effect on their eating tendencies?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maron

I will try again in a few days.

Does the time of day have any effect on their eating tendencies?

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Absolutely. Always feed at night. They're nocturnal and that's when the feeding response kicks in. I have one that hasn't eaten in 2 months and what I do is attempt a feed, no strike, then wait another week to try again.

Sounds like Cleo is in great hands. Good luck and keep us posted.

Dude i literally just got a baby ball python a month ago and also named her Cleopatra or kleo. Beautiful snake.

Cleo was actually going to be called Alpharius (or Alfie for short) as I was going to get a male, but then I picked Cleo out at the expo and had to come up with a name more befitting of a royal princess.

Most of my pets have been named after historical figures in the past - Napoleon the rat, Musashi and Achilles the ferrets, to name a few.

I went with Cleo as I also wanted something my Japanese relatives could say without too much trouble and figured Boudicea might be a handful :D.

Do you have any photos of Kleo? Would be interesting to see whether they resemble each other in any way.

I am so happy. Cleo just took her first mouse from me. It was tough going but we got there.

When I tried 2 days ago she was outside her hide and basically turned away from the mouse and headed in the other direction and I gave up. This time I decided to be a bit more persistent. It was a trial and error mess but she took the mouse eventually :D.

She was in her hide and I warmed the mouse up and dangled it around in front of the entrance but there was nothing. Then I foolishly took her hide off and tried to tease her with the mouse, sometimes even rubbing her body (I read this on an old post in this forum somewhere) but she balled up and hid her head. I was losing hope and put her hide back over her still all balled up.

I hit the mouse again with the hairdryer and tried jiggling it again but nothing. Then my wife, who for someone that wouldn't look at a picture of Cleo a few days ago was showing quite a bit of interest in the feeding attempt, suggested I just leave the mouse there for a while. So I just popped him down with his head just inside the hide and left him there for a few minutes. When I came back I could just see Cleo's head a couple of centimeters from the mouse and so gently picked up the tail and moved him back and she struck, and missed. But now I had her attention and I just teased the mouse's head inside the hide a little more and she struck again and wrapped it up (it is quite a surprise when she strikes even though I was praying for it).

I tugged on the tail a little bit to make sure she had it properly and wasn't just striking it out of fear and she had a good grip. After a couple of minutes the mouse started slowly disappearing into the hide.

By now I had all the lights off to make sure nothing disturbed her and I couldn't see jack other than the mouse's tail slowly creeping into the hide.

I am pretty certain she ate it but am just going to wait until morning to check it out for sure.

I feel so relieved. There are so many posts about them not eating that it is easy to feel intimidated and over worried, especially at the beginning.

Sorry for the long waffle but I am just pleased she took a mouse. :snake::taz:

Edit...
I just checked her before bed and she had moved over to her warm hide and there is no sign of a mouse in her cool hide...mouse 0 - Cleo 1!

Yesss! That's awesome! Don't worry about the long post as we all totally understand what it feels like to have one not eat. It's worrisome, to say the least. Now, what I do is my noodle at least a couple days with no interaction and about day 3 (after his meal) is when I take him out for handling.

Congrats!!

Cleo is very cute! congrats on your first snake and congrats on a successful feeding!

Today I took Cleo out of her enclosure for the first time since she came home last week for 15 minutes of handling.

She was shy at first but soon began exploring my arms and belly.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...leotheball.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../9/cleoarm.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../cleoblack.jpg

And a quick video:

https://youtu.be/lDi7rY5Hkrc

Does her breathing seem normal? Seems a bit heavy to me.

We made real progress today.

It was Cleo's 4th feeding attempt and it was so smooth - I am over the moon. We have taken small steps towards a decent feeding and today we seemed to nail it.

Here she is downing that mouse - not her prettiest look but good to see nonetheless (I know I should leave her alone after she takes the mouse but I was so happy I had to take a quick photo).

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ab87b977a.jpeg

And here is her husbandry record showing her progression from refusal through to taking the prey well (I have my own abbreviations - VR: very reluctant, NE: needed encouragement, TW: took well)

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...402285a65.jpeg